Another week later, we all sat at Kristen’s dining room table, planning for Invitation Only. I pinched my nose, grumpy as hell. Thank fuck, other than one business email, I hadn’t heard from Madison again. I also hadn’t seen much of Hannah either. With my covering for vacationing bartenders at Loading Zone, and Hannah’s bakery exploding with orders, we’d had to cancel all of our nightly dinners, and we’d only been able to get together once.
Then tonight, after an hour had been wasted at Kristen’s, we hadn’t gotten shit done. I needed to get the calendar straight. In a week, we had the one-year anniversary of Loading Zone, the following weekend was Mom and Dad’s Fourth of July party at their country estate, and the weekend after, the double bar mitzvah.
“Focus, people.” I glared at Hannah and my sisters, who chattered away about nonessential things. “Kiki, you said invitations went out for Loading Zone’s party?”
She nodded while she stirred her root beer float. “Three weeks ago. But you said you wanted to fill the place to capacity. We were two hundred RSVPs short with Loading Zone’s contacts and your filtered country club member list, so I went to your website and installed a banner to advertise.”
I sighed. Exclusive meant picking and choosing guests. But the event was to benefit charity, and anyone who wanted to pay two hundred and fifty dollars a head to help those in need would be welcomed.
“Hannah, you got the cake covered? Nothing fancy like the last charity event, more fun and casual.” I glanced at her.
She gave me a warm smile. “Got it covered.”
Tight deadlines sucked ass. Fitting into calendars of the social elite was difficult enough without short notice. When Kristen had initially said five weeks out for the dual event, the time to plan seemed like forever. However, Ben asked me last week to take over some of the details for the bar event, which had sent me scrambling. Then, to add fuel to the fire, Mom and Dad sprung their summer party on us.
Suddenly the “forever” deadline of the bar mitzvahs loomed on our doorstep. We had a million things to do and not enough people to carry them out without meticulous planning.
“Loading Zone’s DJ, Darren, can handle the playlist for the anniversary event. In fact, I may bring Darren to the bar mitzvahs.”
Kristen shook her head. “Are you kidding? A DJ in one room and not the other? The kid left without will be jealous. Then we’ll have a livid mom on our hands.”
“Right. Either no live DJ, or we have two.” I nodded.
Then I shot off a quick email to Darren:
Hey, man. Need you to run soundtrack or hire DJs for two parties. One theme is AC/DC. The other, Justin Bieber. No, you read right. I’ll owe you one. And make sure things are tight for next weekend at LZ.
I clicked back to my master to-do list. “Next. Almost nothing’s been done for Mom and Dad’s gig.”
Kristen shouted from the kitchen as she retrieved another round of beers from the fridge. “What do they want?” Seconds later she returned, sliding the bottles across the dining table. Then she went over to the couch, plopped down, sprawled out, and closed her eyes.
Mom hadn’t called Kristen to ask us to run her party—she’d called me. (Anything business related, mom always called me.) “The usual. Dress code: pool party. Which means waiters wearing tuxes in the sweltering heat while they serve bonbons to a star-studded cast lounging in the sun. She instructed me to have fireworks ‘shooting shimmering colors over the water.’ Sure, no problem, Mom. Piece of cake. Oh, and she wants it on Saturday, even though the Fourth is on a Friday.”
Kendall asked, “You can do fireworks in two weeks?”
“That part I’ve already secured. Fireworks, furniture, and the bar are all set. The rest of it needs to be scheduled: food, serving staff, and entertainment.”
Kristen laughed. “I’ll talk to her. There’s no way we’ll put waiters in tuxes for a pool party. She forgets we’ve got our own style, and she needs to trust our judgment. Besides, we aren’t torturing the help.”
“So what’s the alternative?” I glanced up, a smirk curling my lips. “Shirtless cabana boys?”
Kiki and Kendall burst out laughing. Kristen snorted. “Yeah, good luck with that.”
Hannah leaned forward. “No, wait a minute. That’s a great idea.”
Everyone quieted, staring at her.
She continued, “Think about it. Shirtless men with tousled hair and ripped abs, wearing board shorts and flip flops.”
Kristen coughed, sputtering out her beer. “Flip flops? Have you met my mother? There’s no way she’ll let her society friends see the serving staff’s hairy toes.”
Kiki choked out a laugh.
Hannah slowly shook her head. “I guarantee you: no woman will be looking at their feet. They won’t make it past the sexy V of their obliques slipping into their waistbands.”
Under the table, Hannah suddenly trailed a finger along my waistband, then slid it below the edge of my jeans. I swallowed hard at the unexpected action, and for several seconds, forgot what she’d been talking about.
My sisters stared at Hannah, not for her left-field suggestion, but because they were actually considering it.
Kudos to Hannah for her ballsy creativity. Made perfect sense. The one to shake things up when we got stuck in our high-society mold would be the one who hadn’t been tarnished by it.
One by one, the girls all smiled.
“And who would be finding these oblique-sporting men?” Kiki’s eyes lit up.
Hannah grinned. “We would, of course. Feel like a slumber party tomorrow night at my place?”
Kristen arched a brow. “And Cade is cool with you sorting through man-candy?”
Yeah. Don’t forget about your oblique-sporting man.
Hannah glanced at me and winked. Then she swept her gaze toward the three of them. “Sure. I had to watch him pick out models as bunnies for Dwight’s Easter debauchery. I was quite the good sport about it, if I remember correctly.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “You’ve planned this all along, haven’t you?”
She nudged my shoulder. “No. But it sure helps my case, doesn’t it?”
Kristen nodded once, then sat up on the couch and slapped her bare knees. “I’m in. And I’ll make sure Mom is prepared. I just need to convince her that the female guests will be happy to be surrounded by their fantasies come to life.”
“Plus, Cade can help us.” Hannah planted a chaste kiss on my cheek.
“Excuse me?” I blinked, certain I’d misheard.
“You have a knack for picking the best people. You don’t want us distracted by good looks alone, do you?”
I grumbled a string of obscenities under my breath. “I think I’m gonna be busy. I’m planning a guys’ night in my head as we speak.”
Kiki groaned. “Caaade. We need your help.”
I leaned back and crossed my arms. “I’m confident your combined logic will trump your collective libidos.”
Kristen put her beer on the table. “Any tips? Or are you gonna let us fly blind here?”
“Call the modeling agencies. Have them email you their portfolio of sports models. Tell them what qualifications you’re looking for, and they’ll filter on their end first.”
Kendall grabbed her pen and jotted down a note. “I’ll do that. How many will we need?”
I scanned the email to confirm the headcount. “Mom’s invited two hundred guests. Twelve should cover it, but we should hire fifteen to be safe.”
The last unresolved issue glared at me, the cursor blinking in front of it like a ticking time bomb. “Last item: Madison emailed this morning.” Even though she knew damn well I didn’t want to work with her directly. “She mandated we meet this week at her club for a sampling of the menu, linen, and setting choices, among other things.” The tone in the email had been hard-edged Madison. She was becoming an ex-girlfriend version of “Jekyll & Hyde.”
Kristen tilted her head at my dread-filled monotone. “There’s nothing unusual about that. It’s done all the time in the industry.”
I clenched my jaw. “She made the stipulation that I come alone.”
Hannah tightened her grip on my thigh, but a split second later relaxed her hold.
Kiki scowled. “Sounds more like a hostage exchange than a highbrow tasting.”
I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. I replied, instructing her that I don’t work alone. And that Hannah is more than our resident baker, she’s involved in anything we do with food. So we both go. Or no one goes.”
“Good.” Kendall shot a venomous glare at my laptop, as if she was sending her irritation through the Internet back to Madison.
I glanced at Hannah. “That’s not all. There’s no way I’m going into a room with Madison, with only me and Hannah there. Who else wants to go to the taste testing?”
Kiki’s arm shot up. “I’m so there.”
Kendall nodded. “Count me in.”
“Wouldn’t miss being there for the world. We’ll all go together.” Kristen’s eyes narrowed. “Speaking of our suspect. Any new surprises?”
Kiki shook her head. Kendall did too.
Hannah frowned. “You know, I hadn’t put it together until now, but I had a large weekly supply order not show. When I called, they said the delivery had been deleted. He apologized, wrote it off as a computer glitch, and delivered my shipment the following morning.”
I glanced at her. “You need to do the same with your vendors that we did with Invitation Only’s. Let’s not leave anything to chance.”
Her expression hardened. “I have a great relationship with the sales reps of all my vendors. I’ll ask that if anyone contacts them on my behalf, to try and find out who it is. If it is Madison, and she’s messing with my livelihood, this ‘baker’ is going to pull the rug out from under her country club ass.”
I grinned, so damned proud of her. “Agreed. Proof first. Then karma can have at her.”